ART DETECTIVES
Date Posted: 1st December 2022
Percy Kelly rarely titled his paintings. Why would he if he didn’t want to show or sell his work? HE knew where they were of course! I have spent years figuring it out and not always succeeding. His sketch books have been a boon as I could sometimes follow him on one of his sketching jaunts and he did sometimes put an initial on his sketches to remind himself where he’d been (I’ve come to realise M is Maryport and that’s one of the easier ones!) but sadly only a few sketchbooks have survived.
I have just acquired for sale the little landscape painting (19 x 11.5cm image size) shown here but it doesn’t give much away apart from a date - PK 1959. Neither does the other, a group of houses somewhere in West Cumbria dated PK 1960 (38 x 32cm image size) which indicates that they were made in the transition between his pale conventional little watercolours and his big free charcoal drawings which he began in 1957/8. That was the transition between living over the post office in Great Broughton and his move to Allonby which prompted an extremely fertile time for his art and the transition from a dark and bleak mental breakdown into the light and a better life (and most of us know where that ended). Does anyone recognise these locations. Both are on the WORKS FOR SALE page.
Right now, as we approach 2023, some long standing unsolved mysteries are unravelling as the result of some unbelievable coincidences as the story of Kelly’s glorious Sixties unfolds. There is more detective work be done and the results will be revealed at the Beacon exhibition PERCY KELLY’S COPELAND 21st January – 26th February 2023.
But for now it’s back to the present. It's the 1st of December. So if you are thinking of Christmas gifts have a look at the 2 pages of the Merchandise page of the web site. I’m happy to post to any address in the UK with a Kelly card and a message from you and I will put an extra Kelly catalogue in the parcel for free during the festive season (goodwill to all men etc!). I also post abroad but you need to send me an e mail and I will work out the postage cost.